Today is a big day for us residents of Washington D.C. 80 years ago today, our revered President slithered out of his mother’s womb and like the Caesars of old, Trump will stage a giant birhday gladiator cage fight match in a Colosseum star-spangled 90-foot “Claw” and octagon-shaped ring that he had built on the White House South Lawn. The match is organized by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) which is headed by the President’s close friend and supporter Dana White.
The exhibition fits the spirit of our fighting President, assuming he can stay awake for it, and assuming Mother Nature is cooperative after the evil courts and sick Democrats tried and failed to shut it down just because our President, how allegedly doesn’t take his salary, and his family are potentially making millions off his investments in the UFC.
Trump purchased tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of stock in UFC’s parent company while promoting the event, according to a May financial disclosure. He’s holding a $1 million-per-plate fundraiser for his top super PAC the night before the cage match. And Trump “officially designed” a line of “Trump x UFC Freedom 250” medallions, which are selling for $250 to $12,000.
Some legal experts consider the fight less than ethical:
“This is a real distillation of this administration, which is to take public property and use it for private benefit,” said Brendan Ballou, a former Justice Department prosecutor who represented the plaintiffs who lost a court battle to stop the fight. “The danger in having corruption normalized is it will fundamentally tell the very rich and powerful that they are beyond reach of the law — and that message will extend beyond this administration.”
Is it Safe?
Ethical schmethical. For us workplace health and safety freaks, the issue isn’t the ethics of how the President celebrates his 80th, but rather the safety and labor implications of this match.
Cage fighting is also known as Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). The “sport” presents an inherent risk for injuries like unnatural joint strains and long bone fractures, concussions and broken orbital bones, torn ligaments, fractured hands, and severe lacerations. Generally, compared directly to boxing, MMA fighters experience fewer severe long-term brain injuries and fatalities, as fights are often stopped before a fighter can suffer repeated head trauma. Nevertheless, there have been brain injuries among MMA fighters, including a brain disease called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), although the sport is relatively new enough that little is known about the incidence of CTE among participants.
So as you can see, MMA wrestlers face hazards not unlike health care and social service workers in this country (although cage fighting doesn’t appear in the job descriptions of health care or social service workers who generally didn’t go to nursing school to become cage fighters.)
There is some oversight — probably more oversight that health care or social service workers receive. Sanctioned events require licensed, on-site ringside physicians who have the authority to stop a contest if an athlete is unable to defend themselves. Also, fighters must pass comprehensive pre-bout physicals (including eye exams and blood work) and adhere to mandatory Timelines and Rules following bouts to prevent cumulative trauma.
One might wonder whether OSHA has any jurisdiction in this area. And the answer is no. Why not? Because UFC fighters are classified as independent contractors, which means that they don’t have the right to join a union or to receive traditional workplace protections like minimum wages — or OSHA coverage.
Of course, even if OSHA could somehow cover the fighters, the Trump administration has proposed a regulation that would restrict the use of the General Duty Clause in any sports or entertainment workplaces to cite employers where workers are exposed to certain “inherently risky employment activities.”
A Union?
There have been attempts to organize UFC fighters. Both the Professional Fighters Association (PFA) and the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association formed to request increases in pay, revenue sharing, disability benefits, comprehensive health insurance for fighters and their families, a pension system, and a dispute resolution process and additional compensation for former fighters. But the UFC is fiercely anti-union and being classified as independent contractors, as opposed to “employees” as defined by the National Labor Relations Act, makes it unlikely that fighters will be recognized as employees under this administration.
On the other hand, some legal experts believe that UFC fighters should be classified as employees.
And the events have always been controversial. In 1996, United States senator John McCain called UFC fights were “barbaric” and “not a sport.” He sent letters to all 50 US governors asking them to ban “human cockfighting”. And the American Medical Association opposes combat sports due to the inherent goal of inflicting head injuries, and opposing the legalization of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) without rigorous medical and regulatory oversight.
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Footnote: Thanks to Saul Schneiderman for suggesting this topic. Saul, among many other hats that he wears and has worn, is Chairman of the Labor Heritage Foundation, which you should check out. (And a former AFSCME brother.)